State DOTs: Strong districts or strong central office?

[Revive 755]

I've been wondering which organizational method is more common among state DOTs.  Whereas a DOT with strong central office has all design, traffic/operations, and all planning in the headquarters and only construction and maintenance based out of field/district offices, a DOT with strong districts has a traffic/operations, roadway design and planning at the district level with only statewide/multimodal planning and bridge design in the central office.  From my experience:

Strong central office
* Iowa
* Kansas
* Nebraska
* North Dakota
* South Dakota

Strong districts
* Illinois
* Missouri
* Pennsylvania

[hbelkins]

I've been wondering which organizational method is more common among state DOTs.  Whereas a DOT with strong central office has all design, traffic/operations, and all planning in the headquarters and only construction and maintenance based out of field/district offices, a DOT with strong districts has a traffic/operations, roadway design and planning at the district level with only statewide/multimodal planning and bridge design in the central office.  From my experience:

Strong central office
* Iowa
* Kansas
* Nebraska
* North Dakota
* South Dakota

Strong districts
* Illinois
* Missouri
* Pennsylvania

Kentucky has some design, planning, traffic, etc. functions in the district offices, but central office has to approve everything and (in my opinion) dominates the processes. Also in my opinion, I think this is detrimental to the state because it's been my experience that with nearly everything in state government, Frankfort does not have a clue how the real world operates or should operate. So I would definitely classify Kentucky in your "strong central office" category.

I have always been a strong advocate of decentralizing Kentucky state government and giving field offices and employees in all agencies more authority and responsibility. Frankfort is physically removed from much of the state (six hours or so to the southwestern corner of the state, and about 3 1/2 hours to the southeastern corner) and is also philosophically removed from how things work best out in the state. I have never felt a "one size fits all" approach is a wise idea, especially when dealing with diverse populations, geography, socio-economic statuses, and so on.

However, I am happy that the public information officers in each district have a great deal of autonomy. The PIOs answer directly to the chief district engineers in each of the 12 districts and I can work pretty much independently. There is an Office of Public Affairs in Frankfort and we work closely with the director and staff there, but we don't answer to them, they don't perform our employee evaluations, and they don't have to approve our press releases, etc. Normally as a matter of routine we consult with Public Affairs and run controversial things by them, but we generally are free to act in the best interests of our respective districts.

[roadfro]

Nevada DOT is kind of a mixed bag, from what I can tell.


All three districts have maintenance and operations personnel as well as construction oversight. Each district seems to also have some basic design and other functions. However, most major project planning and design statewide seems to come from headquarters.

There is some overlap and autonomy associated with district 1 though. District 1 has some design and planning that concentrates on this area, whereas districts 2 and 3 have most similar work done at headquarters. District 1 even has a deputy director position that the other districts don't have. The reason for this: district 1 encompasses the Las Vegas area, where the bulk of NDOT projects have been happening over the last several years. About a decade ago, it was decided that there should be more central service functions and oversight located in Las Vegas, due to the bulk of projects happening there and different design/operational/maintenance issues associated with southern Nevada as opposed the two northern Nevada districts.

[J N Winkler]

I would add Arizona to the "strong central office" category and Washington, Oregon, Utah, California, Texas, and Ohio to the "strong districts" category.  My rule of thumb for differentiating between the two is whether final design activities for major projects occur at the district level.  In general, a state has to be both physically large and large in terms of population in order to sustain well-articulated decentralization in the state DOT; otherwise, the arguments in favor of concentrating design activities in the central office become very difficult to resist.  But this generalization does not hold absolutely--for example, Utah has a size and population similar to Kansas but UDOT is decentralized while KDOT is not.

Unlike H.B. Elkins, I don't have a strong view on the whole question of centralization.  My concern is more with how inputs relate to outputs.  State DOTs generally accept tax money as an input, while the outputs that are of interest to me personally are design activities, construction activities, and public access to records.  In regard to the latter it is frequently the case that DOTs with decentralized design have centralized design support activities, such as an electronic plans vault which is based in the central office.  I generally prefer to deal with one central office instead of multiple districts, but I also prefer that access to the plans be automated so I don't have to request employee time for retrieval.

Edit:  To add to Roadfro's point, many state DOTs have tail-wagging-the-dog districts.  Oregon DOT and its District 1 (which has a budget in excess of the combined budget of the other Oregon DOT districts) is a case in point.  Similar arguments could be made for Minnesota DOT's Metro District and even Kansas DOT's Northeast District.

[Alps]

New Jersey: Strong central office. The districts are there to provide more regionally focused service.
New York: Strong districts. Different standards between each one.

[SP Cook]

West Virginia has very strong districts.  State office really just does business functions unrelated to actual opperations (employment, EEO) and stuff like enviromental litigation, major design and contract administration for major constuction projects.  Districts do everything else.  Remember WV has no real county roads (roads signed as "county route" this or that are just a lower class of state route), so the amount of roads to oversee is huge.

[vdeane]

New York: Strong districts. Different standards between each one.

You can say that again.  We're consistently inconsistent.  Even stuff that has state-wide standards (such as signage) varies between districts (though less so than before, with both regions 4 and 6, and others more slowly, changing to the new rounded corners exit tab).

[roadman65]

Florida has strong districts. Some are stronger than others. For example FDOT 7 that handles Tampa Bay area has most pull with so many SPUIs being built along US 19 and yet here in Orlando we had to fight for years just to get the FL 50 and FL 436 interchange.  There are not many interchanges here in East Central Florida like there is in Tampa and St. Pete area, but we have just as much need for them as they do.

Does NJ have districts?  I am under distinction that NJDOT only has one main office due to the small size of its state. Not like FL or PA with numbered districts I have not yet found.

[cpzilliacus]

Virginia DOT (formerly Virginia Department of Highways) once had a very strong Central Office, but in the past 20 years, has delegated much to the Districts. 

Though in the fiscal crunch that VDOT has been in for the past 3 or 4 years, I know that a lot of VDOT staff has been laid-off.

Maryland State Highway Administration is a mixed bag.  All or very nearly all of the planning staff is at SHA's main office in Baltimore (makes sense, given that the state is not that large), but the district engineers still get delegated operational authority. 

[J N Winkler]

Does NJ have districts?  I am under distinction that NJDOT only has one main office due to the small size of its state. Not like FL or PA with numbered districts I have not yet found.

Let us know if you find PennDOT District 7.

[roadman65]

Does NJ have districts?  I am under distinction that NJDOT only has one main office due to the small size of its state. Not like FL or PA with numbered districts I have not yet found.

Let us know if you find PennDOT District 7.

I know they have districts cause it was posted on their official state map in 1999.  I wrote to one about the erroneous "Trenton" control city for I-95 Northbound on US 1 near Oxford Valley.  Little did that do as it never was changed spite the engineer who wrote me the letter said he would change it to Princeton and add Trenton as control city for US 1 Northbound on I-95.

Plus, it is the reason why the metro Philly area never had span wire traffic signals like the rest of Pennsylvania once had.  If they did it was a rarity.  The district handling most of the counties around SE PA was the reason according to one member on this forum and as far as I can remember I never saw a span wire assembly at all east of Lancaster County on US 30 and in Bucks, Delaware, Chester, or Montgomery Counties either except in termporary set ups.

[Alps]

Does NJ have districts?  I am under distinction that NJDOT only has one main office due to the small size of its state. Not like FL or PA with numbered districts I have not yet found.

Did you read my post?

[roadman65]

Does NJ have districts?  I am under distinction that NJDOT only has one main office due to the small size of its state. Not like FL or PA with numbered districts I have not yet found.

Did you read my post?

Sorry, I do not know why I did not see it.  I did learn from travels that New York that statewide in everything that the regions or counties are not consistent in many things which explains what you say about the Empire State.  Even self serve gas is up to each individual county as I have found that one time one particular county in the Adirondack Region only had FULL SERVE gasoline like in New Jersey.   Even the 5 boroughs did not allow self service until into the 80s as I recall and then the right turn on red thing is up to each county to so NYC does not have to manufacture millions of NO TURN ON RED assemblies for its million or so traffic signals that still use 1950's technology to operate them.

[Alps]

Does NJ have districts?  I am under distinction that NJDOT only has one main office due to the small size of its state. Not like FL or PA with numbered districts I have not yet found.

Did you read my post?

Sorry, I do not know why I did not see it.  I did learn from travels that New York that statewide in everything that the regions or counties are not consistent in many things which explains what you say about the Empire State.  Even self serve gas is up to each individual county as I have found that one time one particular county in the Adirondack Region only had FULL SERVE gasoline like in New Jersey.   Even the 5 boroughs did not allow self service until into the 80s as I recall and then the right turn on red thing is up to each county to so NYC does not have to manufacture millions of NO TURN ON RED assemblies for its million or so traffic signals that still use 1950's technology to operate them.

At least regarding RTOR, it's a statewide law applying to any city over 1,000,000 population.

[roadman65]

Does NJ have districts?  I am under distinction that NJDOT only has one main office due to the small size of its state. Not like FL or PA with numbered districts I have not yet found.

Did you read my post?

Sorry, I do not know why I did not see it.  I did learn from travels that New York that statewide in everything that the regions or counties are not consistent in many things which explains what you say about the Empire State.  Even self serve gas is up to each individual county as I have found that one time one particular county in the Adirondack Region only had FULL SERVE gasoline like in New Jersey.   Even the 5 boroughs did not allow self service until into the 80s as I recall and then the right turn on red thing is up to each county to so NYC does not have to manufacture millions of NO TURN ON RED assemblies for its million or so traffic signals that still use 1950's technology to operate them.

At least regarding RTOR, it's a statewide law applying to any city over 1,000,000 population.

Interesting, that means in cities like Buffalo, Yonkers, Rochester, etc. I have to watch it when driving then.  I have to wait for green to make any movements there just as in the boroughs.

[Alps]

At least regarding RTOR, it's a statewide law applying to any city over 1,000,000 population.

Interesting, that means in cities like Buffalo, Yonkers, Rochester, etc. I have to watch it when driving then.  I have to wait for green to make any movements there just as in the boroughs.

... no

[vdeane]

Does NJ have districts?  I am under distinction that NJDOT only has one main office due to the small size of its state. Not like FL or PA with numbered districts I have not yet found.

Did you read my post?

Sorry, I do not know why I did not see it.  I did learn from travels that New York that statewide in everything that the regions or counties are not consistent in many things which explains what you say about the Empire State.  Even self serve gas is up to each individual county as I have found that one time one particular county in the Adirondack Region only had FULL SERVE gasoline like in New Jersey.   Even the 5 boroughs did not allow self service until into the 80s as I recall and then the right turn on red thing is up to each county to so NYC does not have to manufacture millions of NO TURN ON RED assemblies for its million or so traffic signals that still use 1950's technology to operate them.

At least regarding RTOR, it's a statewide law applying to any city over 1,000,000 population.

Interesting, that means in cities like Buffalo, Yonkers, Rochester, etc. I have to watch it when driving then.  I have to wait for green to make any movements there just as in the boroughs.

Those cities don't have even close to 1,000,000 people.  Their metropolitan areas do, but not the cities themselves.

NY allows RTOR everywhere but NYC.